By Roland Ekama
Despite payment made to reactivate its portal, freight forwarders and customs brokers operating at Five Star Logistics Terminal Limited have lampooned , Nigeria Customs Service for the manner it applied to shutdown operational activities at the facilities.
The Roll On Roll Off (RORO) terminal operator lamented that all monies requested by the Customs has been paid for about a week , hence operational activities barely commenced on Wednesday at the port terminal.
Our correspondent was informed by insider sources from the terminal operator on Wednesday, that skeletal operations have commenced.
The concessionaire also confirmed that operational activities had been disrupted since July 7th 2022 .
Recall that management of the Nigeria Customs Service,Tin Can Island Port Command shutdown operations of the terminal operator over issues bothering on debt owe the government.
As a result the terminal was indebted to customs up to N97.3 million.
It was also gathered that two vessels are currently stranded at the terminal with one laden with containers while the other has hundred of imported vehicles aboard.
Aside the two vessels at berth three others , it was gathered were stranded at anchorage .
Though some of the imported vehicles were transferred to off dock terminals since the closure, congestion and vessels turnaround time for ships have become some of the technical hitches faced by the terminal operator.
Our correspondent who went round the facilities on Tuesday, confirmed that the terminals were already congested with both new and fairly used imported vehicles, even as freight forwarders and customs brokers accused the Area Controller Tin Can Island Port Command of the Nigeria Customs Service, Comptroller Adekunle Oloyode for impeding trade facilitation.
Meanwhile,a cross section of customs brokers and freight forwarders expressed dissatisfaction on how management of the service tackled the issues, describing it as a commando style of operations.
They maintained that customs should have focused on trade facilitation, revenue generation drive and national security instead of shutting down activities at the terminal.
A freight forwarder who crave for anonymity lamented that the situation was pathetic for the concessionaire, freight agents and government revenue generation adding that despite payment made for over a week, the actions of customs was discouraging.
According to him, customs would have engage management of the terminal while operational activities continue noting that monies generated by the concessionaire would also benefit the government rather that the setback in revenue generation by the command.
He noted that despite the dispute between customs and the concessionaire, there was need to allow trade facilitation thrive.
Investigations conducted by our correspondent confirmed that already the latent factor on the action of Customs has led to the collapse of ancillary services.
This is even as touting activities , vulcanizer services, towing of accidental vehicles , petrol supply and other minor services have been affected.
John Nnamdi told our correspondent that since the closure of the facilities on the 7th of July 2022, feeding of the family has become a nightmare due to the 20 days closure.
Nnamdi maintained that the dispute was not properly managed by the customs, saying that it was handled in an unprofessional way.
Nnamdi who provide ancillary services added that many other who supply such services are dying of hunger since the closure of Five Star Logistics Terminal by management of customs.
Uche Ejesieme, Public Relations Officer, Tin Can Island Port Command also confirmed to our correspondent on Wednesday that the portal will be reopened “anytime soon”.
